The Falcons outmuscled Glasgow to romp home in this pre-season friendly at Kingston Park last night.

The absences of Jonny Wilkinson and new Aussie signing Owen Finegan made little difference as Newcastle out-scored the Scots by five tries to one.

Glasgow were nearly always on the back foot against a powerful home pack - and David Walder had a field day wearing Wilko's No 10 shirt with distinction.

"If you'd offered me that scoreline and no injuries at the start of the match I would have snapped your hand off," said director of rugby Rob Andrew.

"It was a pretty competitive game, especially at the breakdown which will stand us in good stead - and coming on the back of a week when we have come back from Japan where we played two full-on games, I'm well satisfied."

Andrew was more than happy with the performances of new forwards Tino Paoletti and Andy Perry plus new winger Anthony Elliott.

"All three have been superb in training and we signed them because we think they are Premiership players," said Andrew.

"They will get better and they have shown up really well in pre-season - and are in pole position to start next week."

There was some early promise from Glasgow with Newcastle suffering early jetlag from the trip to Japan. But while Dan Parks at fly-half and centres Andy Craig and Andy Henderson showed one or two nice touches, they lacked real support from the Glasgow forwards.

Walder's early penalty was followed by a slick threequarter move with the fly-half on the loop - and some clinical handling sent in Tom May for the first try.

Dan Parks pulled six points back with two penalties, but Mark Mayerhofler's instinctive offload sent Jamie Noon under the posts to make it 15-6 at half time.

Newcastle stepped up the pressure in the second half with Matt Burke and Mayerhofler making inroads. But it was a clever pop pass from Mayerhofler and some equally good footwork from scorer Phil Dowson that led to the Falcons third try. Burke showed why he is one of the world's best full-backs when he cruised through from a standing start on the short side for the fourth try on the hour and then Walder's crossfield kick was perfect for Anthony Elliott to score in the corner.

Glasgow's only score in the second half came from an overthrow at the line-out by Newcastle. That led to a penalty from which Calvin Howarth darted over.

Glasgow coach Hugh Hamilton said: "Newcastle were sharp, even though they have been in Japan.

"Newcastle now have a very big, physical pack and we did scrummage well against them - and that will stand us in good stead."